Nonconformist Theology In The 20th Century

This book, based on the 2006 Didsbury Lectures, is the first comprehensive study of the systematic, doctrinal, and constructive theology produced within the major Nonconformist traditions (Congregational, Baptist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Methodist and United Reformed) during the twentieth century. In the first chapter the landscape is surveyed, with reference to such topics as the New Theology, the First World War, the reception of Karl Barth, the theological excitements of the 1960s, and pluralism. The second chapter concerns the major Christian doctrines: God, Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Trinity, while in the third ecclesiological and ecumenical themes are discussed. Eschatology is treated in the concluding chapter, and there follows the author’s assessment of the significance of twentieth-century Nonconformist theology, and his observations regarding its current state, future content, and practitioners.